Hitting The Road Again

Every day in Africa a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows that it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle. When the sun comes up, you better be running.

– Abe Gubegna

Yesterday, I finally gathered enough resolve to sign us up (that is handover cash) for the 10km run in RunMelbourne. If you recall, not that long ago, we did 5.5km and that in itself was an achievement. Peter naively thought that was the end of it but little did he know, I have been stewing for another challenge. I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s the adrenaline rush. Maybe it’s having a goal. Maybe I want to get fit. Or maybe it’s just the running. But after pondering long and hard, I decided I’ve had enough of pondering and needed to turn that into some doing. So I went and did it. Sometimes in life, that’s the best way to overcome the inertia that’s in all of us.

But a few clickety clicks with the mouse on the computer does not equal 10km’s. Now I actually have to train and work out how to get there. Peter very nicely downloaded two 10-week training routines. One for the beginner and the other intermediate. He knew enough about us to skip the routine for the advanced! Even then, after looking at the intermediate routine, we knew that we were in trouble. On the intermediate routine, there were calls for fast runs, uphill surges and interval training. This is where you interlace short fast sprints with slow easy jogs. For me, this will never work. I only ever have one speed when I run. There’s no changing gears and I definitely do not sprint.

On top of all that, the first week alone called for an 8km run on the weekend! In the first week! Really? So, we ditched that pretty quick. Unfortunately, the beginner routine didn’t seem any better either as at no point in the 10 weeks, do we actually do 10km’s! There were plenty of easy jogs, runs and cardio training. But where was the 10km jog? I definitely do not want to do it for the first time during the day itself! I’ve tried that before and it almost killed me. So, instead of asking Peter to go back trawling through the internet for a routine we both like, we decided to just do our own thing! The intent would obviously be within the next 10 weeks, we will actually do a 10km jog to prove to ourselves that it can be done. (Peter of course has gone to the extreme and has immersed himself in sports science researching the whole new world of carbo loading, tapering and energy bars. For him, any reason to train less is a good enough reason to try it out!)

Finally I have for a very long time supported the work of Dr Catherine Hamlin and her team at the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital. I have decided as part of my run to raise funds for this charity. It is certainly a charity worth running for so if you wish to support my cause, please visit my fundraising page.